Yoshio Sakamoto

Yoshio Sakamoto
Yoshio Sakamoto at the Game Developers Conference 2010
Born	(1959-07-23) July 23, 1959
Occupation	Video game designer

Yoshio Sakamoto (Japanese: 坂本 賀勇, Hepburn: Sakamoto Yoshio) (born July 23, 1959) is a Japanese video game designer working for Nintendo. He has worked at Nintendo since 1982.

Career

Sakamoto is a key member in the development of the Metroid series, as he was its co-creator. Sakamoto grew up with Nintendo toys, which he noted to be inventive and occasionally "strange". The company hired him in 1982, when he came out of art college. His first projects at Nintendo were the design of pixel art for the Game & Watch handheld Donkey Kong, and the arcade game Donkey Kong Jr. He turned to the Nintendo Entertainment System afterward, for which he designed the games Wrecking Crew, Balloon Fight and Gumshoe. Sakamoto co-directed and created characters for Metroid (under the aliases 'Yamamoto' and 'Shikamoto'), and was a game designer on Kid Icarus. He also directed and wrote Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, Metroid: Zero Mission, and Metroid: Other M. Sakamoto's design work is also found in various other Nintendo titles and franchises, including Balloon Kid (1990), Kaeru No Tame Ni Kane Wa Naru (1992, Japan only), Teleroboxer (1995), Galactic Pinball (1995), Game & Watch Gallery (1997), Trade & Battle: Card Hero (2000), Wario Land 4 (2001), Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001), Wario World (2003), WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! (2003), WarioWare: Smooth Moves (2006) and Card Hero DS (2008). He is one of the most prominent members of Nintendo's former Research and Development 1 division.

Philosophy

Sakamoto has stated that he wants to live up to public expectations of Nintendo to deliver products similarly unique to those of his youth, describing WarioWare, Inc. as a prime example of this effort. Regarding his professional relationship with Shigeru Miyamoto, he believes his own mission is not to compete with but to "always come up with something very different from what Mr. Miyamoto is likely to do".

Gameography

• Balloon Fight (1984) — Game designer
• Wrecking Crew (1985) — Director, game designer
• Gumshoe (1986) — Director, game designer
• Metroid (1986) — Game Designer
• Kid Icarus (1986) — Game Designer
• Balloon Kid (1990) — Director
• X (1992) — Director
• Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru (1992) - Scenario Writer
• Super Metroid (1994) — Director, Scenario Writer
• Teleroboxer (1995) — Director
• Galactic Pinball (1995) — Special Thanks
• Game & Watch Gallery (1997) — Advisor
• Trade & Battle: Card Hero (2000) — Director
• Wario Land 4 (2001) — Supervisor
• Metroid Prime (2002) — Special Thanks
• Metroid Fusion (2002) — Director, Scenario Writer
• Wario World (2003) — Advisor
• WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$! (2003) — Supervisor
• WarioWare: Touched! (2004) — Producer
• Metroid: Zero Mission (2004) — Director
• Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (2004) — Special Thanks
• Metroid Prime Pinball (2005) — Special Thanks
• WarioWare: Smooth Moves (2006) — Producer
• Rhythm Tengoku (2006) — Producer
• Picross DS (2007) — Supervisor
• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (2007) — Special Thanks
• Rhythm Heaven (2008) — General Producer
• WarioWare: D.I.Y. (2009) — Producer
• Tomodachi Collection (2009, Japan exclusive) — Producer
• Metroid: Other M (2010) — Director, Producer, Scenario Writer
• Rhythm Heaven Fever (2011) — General Producer
• Kiki Trick (2012) — Supervisor
• Game & Wario (2013) — Producer
• Tomodachi Life (2013 in Japan, 2014 worldwide) — Producer

External links

• Yoshio Sakamoto at MobyGames